MEXICO CITY (AP) - U.S. President Barack Obama should cut deportations of migrants and focus resources on the 2 million people in the U.S. who are eligible to become citizens, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Wednesday during a visit to Mexico's capital.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A state lawmaker who is running for state insurance commissioner said Wednesday that he is suing California's health benefits exchange for wrongly cutting off more than 1 million insurance policies and for what he called wasting taxpayer money on useless marketing campaigns.

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A Republican candidate for California governor is comparing President Barack Obama's gun control policies with those of dictators such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and North Korea's Kim Jong Il.

CRESCENT CITY (AP) - Authorities say unemployment and drug addiction have spurred an increase in the destructive practice of cutting off the knobby growths at the base of ancient redwood trees to make decorative pieces like lacey-grained coffee tables and wall clocks.

• Lawmakers report thousands in gifts from groups: SACRAMENTO (AP) - California lawmakers, including two Democrats who are on leave after being charged with criminal offenses, have reported thousands of dollars in gifts and travel expenses they received from donors.

SAN DIEGO (AP) - A veterans group on Tuesday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overrule an order to remove a war memorial cross from a San Diego mountaintop after it was found to violate the constitutional separation of church and state.

SUTTER CREEK (AP) - An attempt to unearth new riches from some of the Gold Rush era's most productive mines has stalled, with the owners saying they must spend more than $1 million before work can resume.

SAN JOSE (AP) - Just months after stepping down as head of the nation's largest civil rights organization, former NAACP President Benjamin Jealous is changing his career from an East Coast political activist to a West Coast venture capitalist, a switch he hopes will help further his goal of growing opportunities for blacks and Latinos in the booming tech economy.

SAN JOSE (AP) - A Northern California teenager charged in the alleged thrill-killing of a high school classmate told police his religion, Satanism, allowed him to kill and he had already killed a rabbit and a cat, according to a recently released transcript of his interview with investigators.